Breathe. It’s Christmas Eve. (My Christmas Eve)

You may have noticed my little absence from blogmas. You may have not. Either way, it does not matter, but I have been gone and have not had a time in the world to think.

Where have I been? Why have I been gone? The simple answer is, I’ve been working. I absolutely adore my place of work but it’s Christmas and I’m a retail worker. Things are busy as heck and when you’ve got a list as long as your arm to do, other members of staff are grabbing you every five minutes because someone’s requested management, just adding to your list. I do not mind that at all and always would love to put the customer first, but it does take it out of you.

Anyway, anyway, anyway, without having a moan; I am stressed and I am tired, and my current routine is working and sleeping full stop. This makes me totally thankful for the time I do have to myself.

This life of days filled with no more than work and sleep has meant I not only have not had the time to do blogmas, but it put a lot of pressure on me. The end of november was a struggle and a half for me and my mental health has not so much been wonderful this year, so after a few days of stressing about letting ‘blogmas’ and you readers down, I decided to let my stresses down. What was the best thing for me? Not being under the pressure of blogmas.

2017 has definitely given me the realisation that not worrying too much about blogging made my blog so much better. Every time i’ve tried to stick to a rigid routine, it’s been worse for me, less enjoyable and not necessarily improved my stats (though that barely matters. It’s about you guys who read and enjoy it, anyone I impact, and having fun). When i’ve blogged when I want and about what I want, it’s been carefree, fun, and also (unexpectedly) improved stats anyway!

Anyway, today I bring you a ‘Christmas Eve’ post (even though this was postponed to Christmas day)… literally about a product called ‘Christmas eve’.

Lush’s Christmas Eve

As you may know, I’m a Lushie and have been for several years. My stash has always been so big I could barely fit it all under my bed, and that stash was always particularly stocked with seasonal goodies. I’d have Christmas baths in Summer and save them all up for as long as I can.

This year, the wonder that is ‘Christmas Eve’ bubble bar returned. Christmas Eve is a bubble bar that was actually initially created for Lush workers to use in their bath, post shift, on Christmas Eve! It is nice and relaxing with Ylang Ylang being the prime ingredient, Jasmine, Gardenia Extract and Irish Moss Powder. It’s a very earthy floral scent, but for sure, it is not too strong or overpowering. I am personally not a Jasmine fan at all, meaning scents such as Lust are definitely not for me (I do understand, that like Patchouli- which I love- it’s quite a stomachy dislike you feel if you don’t like it, but if you do like it, you love it) but Christmas Eve is definitely tolerable for me. I don’t get too strong a jasmine scent but it’s still not my favourite scent. However, when you crumble just a little in the bath, the hints of Ylang Ylang are so relaxing and you find yourself in a bubbly garden of pure bliss.

I used this bubble bar last Thursday for the first time this season, just before I had my two weekly days off (this time, luckily, consecutively). I was a little hesitant about it, as I said, due to my dislike of Jasmine, but I did love it. I found the bath extremely relaxing and it was just what I needed!

I was lucky enough not to be working Christmas Eve this year; of course, that means I’m working on boxing day (a good ol’ opening shift tomorrow morn), but I still wanted my Christmas Eve bath. I had other ideas, though. Many months ago, my good friend Claire picked me up a ‘Giant Golden Wonder’ from Oxford Street! At £12.95, the bath bomb was bigger than my face. I wanted to save it for a special occasion. That initially was going to be the day before my birthday, but I then got tickets to the recording of Sara Pascoe’s ‘Monkey Business’ (airing on BBC4 in February) so my birthday eve was occupied with that, and me having a good old discussion with my vegan queen about hetero/cisnormativity and the impact that would have on certain statistics (that she included in her show- I wouldn’t want to spoil it for you, though). I decided to postpone this bath to the day before I moved out, to make my last ‘home’ bath special. I admit I have returned to bathe many times since as in my house now there’s only a shower, so I am making full use of my family’s tub, still. I honestly cannot remember the reason I didn’t, but for sure that weekend there was a lot going on. Since, as I mentioned, I’ve been working full stop so wanted to save it for Christmas Eve.

My bath plan for last night, Christmas Eve, was a hint of Christmas Eve bubble bar, some Man in the Moon bubble bar (only a little of each), and my Giant Golden Wonder. Unfortunately, my Christmas Eve bath tradition was ruined. As aforementioned, I’ve always been obsessed with Lush but never bathed every day as I’m more used to doing now. Lush baths would be special, especially on Christmas Eve. My favourite bath bomb would always be a Christmas Eve gift. I stayed at my grandparents last night, and they have a truly lovely bath, but for some reason the water was pretty much draining away when run due to a plug fault. To try and run it longer would be a waste of water, so after a little while I turned off the water and turned to a shower (using my precious Avoshower shower gel from the Lush Kitchen). I was totally gutted, but I’m glad I have my own shower gels stashed here, too!

Regardless of this, I had a good Christmas Eve. I went down to my Aunt’s house after a bit of a lay-in (It may have been lazy, but when you’ve been up at 6ish every morning before it was needed) and spent a while there with her and my Uncle.

Whilst we waited to leave for my grandparents, I had some vegan pigs in blankets (I bought some Cheatin’ Lincolnshire Sausages and wrapped them in Cheatin’s Rashers. Yum!) and we watched the Hobbit. I also admired all of her Christmas décor:

My little doggos also popped into the house for a while:

I also took a ‘glam’ selfie in one of her fancy chairs:

After we did this, we went to my Grandparents’ house. There, we listened to Christmas music, I did some last minute wrapping, watched some films and Christmas Eve television, and ate some yummy food. My aunt made my family a very Henry VIII-esque terrine with latticed bacon for starters, and they had a beef wellington, too, but I had a lovely avocado salad with some violife cheese, followed by a beanie burger and veg.

It was quite late by the time I got to bed, maybe 1am (I was with my grandma, granddad, aunt and uncle and we waited up for my mum to return from the day she spent with her sort-of boyfriend, but I could hear her and my uncle up chatting until… maybe 3am?

I guess my reasons for being up were the pure excitement of Christmas, the not being able to sleep incase Santa arrived.

I have also had a very fulfilling Christmas Day. I may write a little post about that later, but will now just mention I have thoroughly enjoyed the day and am extremely grateful for all the food, gifts, and good company I received.

I hope you all had the most joyful Christmas and I hope to be posting many times before 2018 to wish you that then!

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Published by Lauren Curr

4'11. She/They. Probably on the tube or in outer space. Disabled, LGBTQ+ feminist and classicist with a love for politics, history, literature and theatre. Lush Cosmetics. Vegan.
View all posts by Lauren Curr